Plotinus

Plotinus (205-270) was a Greek philosopher of Alexandria, Egypt. In his philosophy there were three principles (hypostases): the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His views became known as "Neoplatonism".

Biography
Plotinus was born in Lycopolis, Aegyptus, Roman Empire in 205 to a Greek family. He took up philosophy at the age of 27 and travelled to Alexandria to study, becoming dissatisfied with every teacher there until he heard Ammonius Saccas lecture, and he became his student. Plotinus taught that there was a supreme, totally transcendent "One" containing no division, multiplicity, or distinction, identifying his "One" with the concept of good and the principle of beauty. The metaphysics of "Emanation" were like the metaphysics of creation in Christianity, as they confirmed the absolute transcendence of the One or of the Devine as the source of the being of all things. The first emanation was nous (divine mind, logos, order, thought, reason), being the first will toward good. He asserted that it is by the good or through beauty that we recognize the One, in material things and then in the forms. He believed that authentic happiness consisted of the true human identifying with that which is the best in the universe, saying that happiness was attainable only within consciousness. His ideal "Perfect life" involved a man who commands reason and contemplation; a happy person would not sway between happy and sad as many of his contemporaries believed. He disagreed with the Stoics' questioning of the ability of someone to be happy, arguing that the soul and true human do not sleep or even exist in time, nor will a living human who has achieved happiness suddenly stop using its greatest, most authentic capacity just because of the body's discomfort in the physical realm. He believed that one could reach a clean slate where the individual may grasp or merge with "The One", meaning that the nous was then dissolved, completely absorbed back into the Monad (the Good above the Demiurge). Plotinus' philosophy had an influence on the development of Christian theology, with Christians combining his view that the Other World was the eternal world of ideas and the Christian view that the Other World was Heaven.